“I do not know,” Inari said.
“How convenient.” Tristan sneered.
“Is it?”
“It is an awfully strange coincidence,” Silas said, “for you to bear the exact same marking.”
“It certainly is. And it is just that. A coincidence.” Inari glanced towards Aloisia again, willing her to say something. Still, she remained silent.
“If it is a map to the one who cast it, if the map is leading to the hawk…” Tristan pointed to the shaman. “How do we know it isn’t leading to you?”
“Until I set foot in this room, you did not identify it as a map.” The shaman retreated from Oda, swiping a palm down his face. “Why would I give such information if it were leading to me? When I have seen the similarity between the hawks. Why would I do any of this if I were the one who cast it?”
“Unless you needed access to the body,” Oda said.
“And I came here before you all to gain access to it? Asked the judiciaries to grant me entry, offered to help in translating the curse here? If I had cast this spell, if I had been powerful enough to have done so, I would not need permission to enter here. I would not be asking.”
“He’s speaking sense,” Aloisia said.
None seemed to hear her but Inari.
“Thus far,” Tristan said, “you are the only one near Littlewatch who practices magic. How are we to discern what kind of magic it is? Beyond what you tell us, of course.”
“I told you I do not practice this magic,” Inari said.
“And how do we know you aren’t lying?”
Inari breathed an incredulous laugh. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? It’s almost too easy. After all, if I were the culprit, it would mean Fynn was innocent. He would walk free, and I would be the one to hang.”
Aloisia winced. “Stop!”
They all turned their questioning gazes to her.
“Can’t you see he is at least speaking sense?”
Tristan stepped back as if he had been struck. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m very serious. He didn’t have to come here, to help. If he had cast this spell, if he were in control of the Forgotten Gods, he wouldn’t have to come here to gain access to Brighde. He would only need to order them to collect her, and they would. Even then, why allow her body to be taken in the first place? He could have ordered the creatures to bring her back with them. None of it makes sense. Why would he do any of this if he were the one behind it all?”
“Lis, do you hear yourself? Look at these markings. Why would they be identical if he were not the one who placed it there?”
Aloisia glared, flexing the fingers of her left hand. How could he hold this against Inari when she bore an identical marking, too?
Inari shook his head. “What evidence do you have proving I was involved, beyond this marking on my chest which I have borne for almost ten years? A damn sight longer than this woman has been dead.”
Silas moved between the shaman and the guard. “Can you say, with any certainty, these markings do not connect you?”
The muscle at Inari’s jaw pulsed as he considered the high priest. “No.”
Tristan barked a laugh.
“Fate works in mysterious ways. I cannot say how we are connected, but the coincidence is too strange to say we are not. I can say I was not the one who placed it, in either case.”
Oda released a set of manacles from her belt. “I think these are questions best asked before the magistrate. Do you agree, High Priest?”
Silas sighed. “I cannot disagree. My apologies, shaman.”
“No,” Aloisia breathed.
